Judith Shulevitz’s recent New Republic essay on how later parenthood is “upending American society” claims that delaying kids could lead us down a rabbit hole of genetic decline. But the evidence is inconclusive and somewhat anecdotal.

New CDC birth data out Wednesday confirm that the U.S. birthrate dropped one percent to reach an all-time low in 2011, extending the downward trend begun with the recession in 2008. Put down your knee-jerk fears about smaller population. This drop is a good sign, foretelling not a diminished but a strengthened workforce down the line.

Birth control has unraveled the social fabric that bound all but the very exceptional women with shackles of shame, violence and penury. There’s a way to go before we weave a pattern of full fairness, but there’s no going back. Good riddance. The queen is dead. Long live the enfranchised citizen.

At first blush, the debate over the Paycheck Fairness Act may not look like part of our ongoing national fertility discourse. But failure to pass the PFA will give women yet another reason to have fewer kids.

Fertility rates in the US have fallen. But the needs of the news cycle for drama notwithstanding, nothing drastic or frightening is happening on the fertility front this year. It’s just plain family planning.

Last month Pew Research Center confirmed there are indeed more older moms around. This month they report fewer women are having kids. Both reports resonate with the recent 50-year anniversary of the birth control pill.

Hot on the heels of last month’s fertility scaremongering about ovarian reserve came a new scare for women planning to start their families later, this one about autism. Once again, reporting ignored essential facts and skewed the takeaway.

Childless women of all ages are under assault. If you’re a teenager, you’re pushed toward motherhood by “moralizers.” If you’re a woman 35 or older, you’re subject to ominous news stories about fertility anxiety.